www.bible.com/1713/jas.1.12.csb
Is that not the most ridiculous thing you’ve ever heard? Who is blessed by a trial? A trial is a challenging, faith-inducing affair with anguish of heart and soul. How could such a thing be a blessing? Yet the circumstances are not the blessing itself. The blessing comes in the perseverance that blooms because of the trial. Trial is merely fertilizer to the growth of the Christian. This was not in the brochure.
This is what Christianity such a hard sell. Yes you get eternal life and joy in Christ and love to the bottom of your soul, but, you will also have trouble in this world. Your whole life will be filled with trials that are designed to strengthen your faith. If I was an immature believer, I would be tempted to give up, tempted to throw it all away because I did not sign up for the crucible. I signed up for paradise. But a sword sheathed never knows it’s worth.
Christian, in this world you will have trouble. Do not marvel that the world hates you, because it hated Jesus before you. If you would turn to follow him, be prepared to suffer the insults of the unsaved. Prepare yourself for temptation to prompt you to lose your way or your love. Your chief enemy will not be the unsaved, but the unsaveable, the demons who prowl the earth seeking whom they may destroy. Satan himself prowls around like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. You must always be on your guard, always prepared to defend your faith, before others and even before the judgment seat of your own heart.
The blessing doesn’t come from the trial, but from the perseverance you develop through it. God is seeking the tested and tried. He is seeking to test you and try you, so that you are a well-seasoned believer. God is glorified through our weakness, because by our weakness His strength is exalted. Does that sound weird? When we are weak, He is strong, because the mark of God’s power is most evident when it has nothing to do with us. This we glory in our weakness, our powerlessness, because He is able! We worship and glorify the One who saves. Despite our frailty, our seasoned spirit is what endures, and what God brings to Himself. Our flesh is as grass, here today and gone tomorrow. But our tested spirit, our blessed spirit is the precious pearl God seeks.
So when you are tested today, consider it all joy my brothers. God has counted you worthy of trial. The joy is in the testimony of a life saved by grace through all. May we praise and bless Him today!
Blessed Father, thank you for considering me worthy today to bear the name of Jesus into the dark places my trial takes me. Though my flesh and my mind are weary, I know that my strength comes from the Lord. He alone saves. And nothing in this world is so valuable as to make me want to cling to it more than You. May your grace and peace be with all who suffer today, for there is great suffering in this world. Help me to see them and encourage them. In Jesus’ Name, Amen!
Meritt Musings 